Tag: Google

Over the last week – I have been trying to clean up my files and delete any non-essential email in order to tidy everything up. After deleting a number of files – I noticed my quota within Google Drive was still showing the same percent full before and after I deleted the files.

After waiting a few days and still not seeing any change in the size in the Google quota – I decided I needed to take some further action. I then realized – that when you delete files in your Google Drive – you then need to “empty the trash” before the files are actually gone.

How to empty the trash:

Log into Google Drive

Click on the trash icon in the left sidebar

At the top of the page – you will now see a Trash menu. Click on that and then choose “Empty Trash”

While composing an email this AM – I dragged in a screenshot of a page and mentioned in the email text to “…the screenshot attached.” When I tried to send the message – I got this alert:

I should have expected Google would have some logic to analyze certain phrases in my email messages but I have to say I was still a little surprised – especially since the image was actually correctly attached. Either way – it was nice – as I just had an issue with someone forgetting to attach something to another email which then caused a slew of back and forth “did you get it this time” messages.

I back up all my files locally and then on to Amazon S3. I am not sure what made me give Google Drive a test but I did and I have been very happy with it ever since. What is it that I like better than everything else I have tried?

Since I am always logged in to Google for email, calendar, reader, etc – it is right there.

I can access my files from a great web interface and even view over 30 file types (even if I do not have the application needed to open them locally)

I can manage my files either locally or by using the web interfaces – making the whole management of files really easy regardless of where I am or what I am using to view them.

I can easily send a link to a file to someone or share it with other people I work with who generally always have a Google account (no additional account creation needed)

I just got a call from an automated service (I did not stay on long enough to hear all of it) that said:

“This is an important call for the business owner. This is not Google…”

I figured when they said “This is not Google” they really meant to say “this is a scam to get you listed when you could do it for free” so I hung up. I did have to laugh a bit when I heard “This is not Google”.

I have an assortment of clients – all who prefer to pass documentation back and forth in a number of ways: email, spreadsheets, documents, faxed, etc. Over the last year or so I have been using Google Docs for almost all of my client interaction/checklists/etc. Using Google Docs is great for a number of reasons and if you are not using it yet for your documents – please consider giving it a shot.

Why I use Google Docs (and you should too):

You can create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc without having to buy or support any software.

You can always export the documents as text, PDF, Word, etc if you need to share outside of the Google Docs environment

You can actively create documents with more than one person – in real time

You can notify others when you have made changes

You can choose from hundreds of templates

Your documents are saved every few seconds, are on secure and backed up servers

There is no software to update

There are no Mac/PC issues

The interface is familiar and clean

I could go on and on but before you decide to buy the next version of Office, etc – take a look at what Google put together – they did a great job!

A few years ago – Doug pointed me to an interesting service called “Grand Central”. This service was supposed to take care of the issue of several phone number changes. By using Grand Central – you could use one number for life and forward calls from that number to your home, cell phone, or any other phone depending on caller, time of day, etc. This also means – you can have someone call your Grand Central phone number and it could potentially ring all your other lines until you pick up (great for traveling or people who always use the excuse “you should have called my cell phone instead of my home phone, etc”).

We both signed up for accounts – but soon after I ended up not using it because of some reason or another. Almost a year and a half ago – Google bought it and finally – has released it under the name “Google Voice“. I look forward to trying this out because of the added features (voicemail transcription, conference calling, new UI, etc) and increased reliability (and coolness).

*This also takes care of my never remembering what phone number I have registered for my Dominick’s card 😉

My company is working on one of the largest projects we have ever done and the entire project (a 153 field application form, admin, scoring admin, etc) has to be done in both English and Spanish. This has been a fun project all around. This is the first time I have worked with Ruby on Rails and with localization. Fortunately enough, I found a great tool which I had never used before: Babel Fish Translation. I can input all my form labels and text into the English to Spanish translator and viola! I should mention I started with the Google Translator (still in beta) and did not have the luck I have had with Babel Fish.

Google just announced “My Maps which is a great way to add your personal routes, landmarks, etc on a Google Map. This would be awesome to plot out a trip using placemarks with photos/videos taken at specific places. I am excited to play around with this!

If you own a domain name or maintain a web site you have, at one time or another, wondered who is currently linking your web site. Wonder no more. If you have a Google account, you can log into the Webmaster Tools, add your site and view (and download) a table full of incoming links – both internal and external. Thanks Google!